WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.180 Welcome back to the deep dive. If you feel like 00:00:03.180 --> 00:00:05.679 you blinked during the holidays and woke up to 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:08.320 just the stack of critical high stakes news you 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:10.679 totally missed, you're in the right place. Yeah, 00:00:10.779 --> 00:00:12.320 that happened. We're about to tear through the 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:14.900 information that was, well, maybe strategically 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:17.500 or perhaps just clumsily dumped while everyone 00:00:17.500 --> 00:00:19.839 was focused on other things. And that's exactly 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:23.660 why we do this. For you, the learner, when information 00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:27.539 is released in these huge dumps, be it. legal 00:00:27.539 --> 00:00:30.539 rulings or election results, it's often designed 00:00:30.539 --> 00:00:33.280 to overwhelm. To kind of obfuscate things. Exactly. 00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:35.530 So our mission is pretty simple. Cut through 00:00:35.530 --> 00:00:38.289 that noise, find the key insights, and give you 00:00:38.289 --> 00:00:41.030 the full context and do it quickly. Okay. Let's 00:00:41.030 --> 00:00:43.390 unpack this enormous stack of sources. We're 00:00:43.390 --> 00:00:46.270 diving into three main areas today. First, the 00:00:46.270 --> 00:00:49.030 political pulse. We have a tiny election sending 00:00:49.030 --> 00:00:52.229 some really big signals. Second, some major legal 00:00:52.229 --> 00:00:54.409 and accountability dumps, including the latest 00:00:54.409 --> 00:00:57.770 and frankly very troubling Epstein file release. 00:00:57.869 --> 00:01:01.310 Yeah, that was a mess. And finally, some. Let's 00:01:01.310 --> 00:01:03.770 call it controversial policy and culture spending, 00:01:04.170 --> 00:01:07.030 highlighted by a naval fantasy and a highly unpopular 00:01:07.030 --> 00:01:09.450 renaming controversy. A lot to get through. Let's 00:01:09.450 --> 00:01:11.510 start with politics. We have to talk about South 00:01:11.510 --> 00:01:15.790 Carolina, HD88, a special election, an election 00:01:15.790 --> 00:01:17.810 held two days before Christmas. I mean, that's 00:01:17.810 --> 00:01:20.750 the definition of low turnout. Absolutely. Only 00:01:20.750 --> 00:01:23.870 about 2 ,000 voters even showed up. But you have 00:01:23.870 --> 00:01:26.230 to look at the context of why the seat was even 00:01:26.230 --> 00:01:28.510 vacant. OK, what happened? The seat was held 00:01:28.510 --> 00:01:32.250 by a Republican, RJ May. who is, well, he's leaving 00:01:32.250 --> 00:01:34.170 the state house because of a child pornography 00:01:34.170 --> 00:01:37.250 conviction. Oh, wow. OK. So the Republican John 00:01:37.250 --> 00:01:42.010 Lassener, he won 62 .3 percent to 37 .7 percent. 00:01:42.129 --> 00:01:44.450 Seems like a comfortable GOP hold on the surface. 00:01:44.569 --> 00:01:46.430 It does. But this is where the sources reveal 00:01:46.430 --> 00:01:48.950 that buried insight. What do those numbers actually 00:01:48.950 --> 00:01:50.629 tell us about the political mood? It's about 00:01:50.629 --> 00:01:53.250 the enthusiasm gap. It's all about the enthusiasm 00:01:53.250 --> 00:01:56.170 gap. This specific district, it went for Donald 00:01:56.170 --> 00:01:59.420 Trump by watching 35 points last year. Lassner, 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:01.780 though, he only won by 25 points. So that's a 00:02:01.780 --> 00:02:04.620 10 point shift toward the Democrats in a deep 00:02:04.620 --> 00:02:07.439 red district. A 10 point shift. And it gets even 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:10.300 starker if you look back to the 2022 race. OK. 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:13.500 Then the Republican won by 41 points. So compared 00:02:13.500 --> 00:02:16.539 to that, the shift is actually 16 points. That's 00:02:16.539 --> 00:02:19.400 huge. It is. And the analysis suggests this isn't 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:21.439 because Democrats suddenly showed up for a hopeless 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:23.400 election right before Christmas. It's because 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:25.400 Republicans chose not to vote. They just stayed 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:28.539 home. So what's the big takeaway from that? for 00:02:28.539 --> 00:02:32.120 the bigger picture. Well, if that lack of enthusiasm 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:35.340 is widespread, if the GOP base continues to just 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:38.139 sit out elections like this, the sources suggest 00:02:38.139 --> 00:02:40.400 that could signal a potential catastrophe for 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:44.060 the party in 2026. So that tiny forgotten pre 00:02:44.060 --> 00:02:46.259 -Christmas election might be the canary in the 00:02:46.259 --> 00:02:49.409 coal mine. It just might be. OK, from a tiny 00:02:49.409 --> 00:02:51.409 shift in South Carolina, let's look at a much 00:02:51.409 --> 00:02:54.650 bigger fight shaping up. Wyoming, the Senate 00:02:54.650 --> 00:02:57.150 race, to fill that recently vacated seat. Right. 00:02:57.189 --> 00:02:59.250 And this is turning into a classic money versus 00:02:59.250 --> 00:03:02.110 experience conflict. So on the experience side, 00:03:02.449 --> 00:03:04.509 you have Representative Harriet Hagman. She's 00:03:04.509 --> 00:03:07.270 got a proven track record, statewide wins, and 00:03:07.270 --> 00:03:09.530 maybe most importantly, Donald Trump's endorsement. 00:03:09.770 --> 00:03:11.949 All big advantages. But then there's the challenger, 00:03:12.210 --> 00:03:14.949 the billionaire Reid Rasner. He ran for the other 00:03:14.949 --> 00:03:19.129 Senate seat in 2024. His wealth is it's in the 00:03:19.129 --> 00:03:22.569 billions. Hageman is guaranteed to lose the money 00:03:22.569 --> 00:03:25.490 race. Oh, big time. And while Wyomingites do 00:03:25.490 --> 00:03:27.710 historically favor experience, you know, for 00:03:27.710 --> 00:03:29.969 over 50 years, pretty much every new senator 00:03:29.969 --> 00:03:32.650 has had prior legislative service, which really 00:03:32.650 --> 00:03:35.229 favors Hageman. But she had a misstep. She did 00:03:35.229 --> 00:03:38.789 a notable one. Back in March, Hagen was booed 00:03:38.789 --> 00:03:41.430 at a town hall. She criticized her constituents' 00:03:41.909 --> 00:03:44.830 hysteria over federal issues like tariffs. And 00:03:44.830 --> 00:03:46.650 that kind of comment plays right into the hands 00:03:46.650 --> 00:03:49.210 of an outsider promising change. Absolutely. 00:03:49.490 --> 00:03:51.409 But, you know, if voters are truly looking for 00:03:51.409 --> 00:03:53.949 a candidate who is both experienced and maybe 00:03:53.949 --> 00:03:56.229 a little distant from all the DC drama, there's 00:03:56.229 --> 00:03:58.870 a dark horse. The sources suggest keeping an 00:03:58.870 --> 00:04:01.370 eye on Governor Mark Gordon. He's a Republican. 00:04:01.629 --> 00:04:03.949 He has that combination of statewide experience 00:04:03.949 --> 00:04:06.889 and a genuine Washington outsider status. He 00:04:06.889 --> 00:04:08.750 could be a real threat if he decides to get in 00:04:08.750 --> 00:04:10.789 the race. OK, so that's the political pulse. 00:04:11.229 --> 00:04:13.370 Now, if the theme of that segment was political 00:04:13.370 --> 00:04:16.310 maneuvering, the theme for our next segment is 00:04:16.310 --> 00:04:19.470 accountability or the lack of it. Let's turn 00:04:19.470 --> 00:04:22.699 to those massive legal information dumps. starting 00:04:22.699 --> 00:04:25.699 with the Epstein files. Yeah, so the DOJ released 00:04:25.699 --> 00:04:29.680 a second huge tranche of documents. Over 11 ,000 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:32.180 files, something like 30 ,000 pages. That's a 00:04:32.180 --> 00:04:34.439 lot to sift through. It is. But the immediate 00:04:34.439 --> 00:04:37.480 takeaway, really, is this highly unusual display 00:04:37.480 --> 00:04:40.860 of, well, administrative failure in the release 00:04:40.860 --> 00:04:43.220 itself. Which, of course, fueled immediate public 00:04:43.220 --> 00:04:44.939 suspicion. We're talking about unforced errors 00:04:44.939 --> 00:04:47.060 here, right? Totally unforced. The DOJ made at 00:04:47.060 --> 00:04:49.779 least two just... Utterly embarrassing screw 00:04:49.779 --> 00:04:52.699 -ups. First, victim names were not properly redacted. 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:54.879 Which violates a congressional law. Violates 00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:57.180 the law, yes. And seconds of redactions they 00:04:57.180 --> 00:04:59.199 did make were done so poorly that the text could 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:01.240 be recovered, including mentions of Donald Trump. 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:04.660 So this kind of hacky release, the poorly organized 00:05:04.660 --> 00:05:08.180 website, it looks less like transparency and 00:05:08.180 --> 00:05:10.379 more like they're deliberately trying to hide 00:05:10.379 --> 00:05:12.839 something. It certainly raises questions. It 00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:15.110 looks like deliberate obfuscation. So let's talk 00:05:15.110 --> 00:05:17.529 specifics. What's new about the names involved? 00:05:17.750 --> 00:05:20.069 Well, Trump's name appears much more frequently 00:05:20.069 --> 00:05:23.089 in this batch. There's an email that confirms 00:05:23.089 --> 00:05:26.490 he traveled on Epstein's plane a lot more than 00:05:26.490 --> 00:05:28.810 was previously known. And often with Ghislaine 00:05:28.810 --> 00:05:32.209 Maxwell. Often with Ghislaine Maxwell, yes. And 00:05:32.209 --> 00:05:34.269 furthermore, law enforcement communications, 00:05:34.350 --> 00:05:37.470 they explicitly refer to a somewhat lengthy list. 00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:41.339 of at least 10 co -conspirators. Which contradicts 00:05:41.339 --> 00:05:43.180 what officials have said before, suggesting it 00:05:43.180 --> 00:05:45.819 was only Epstein and Maxwell. Exactly. It contradicts 00:05:45.819 --> 00:05:48.500 those claims. And we should also note, multiple 00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:51.300 documents refer to a member of the British royal 00:05:51.300 --> 00:05:54.579 family whose name begins with an A. Prince Andrew. 00:05:54.699 --> 00:05:56.939 Almost certainly Prince Andrew. But maybe the 00:05:56.939 --> 00:05:59.360 most concerning part is how the DJ handled the 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:01.579 inevitable conspiracy theories that popped up. 00:06:01.660 --> 00:06:04.319 The fake letter. The fake letter, yeah. A letter 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:07.310 linking Epstein and Larry Nassar. It was clearly 00:06:07.310 --> 00:06:09.649 fake. It was postmarked three days after Epstein 00:06:09.649 --> 00:06:12.949 died in New York. But after that, the Duo J posted 00:06:12.949 --> 00:06:16.290 this note on X. On X, formerly Twitter. Right. 00:06:16.709 --> 00:06:18.790 Claiming that sensational claims against Trump 00:06:18.790 --> 00:06:22.410 in the documents were unfounded and false. Why 00:06:22.410 --> 00:06:25.350 is that move so significant? Because it suggests 00:06:25.350 --> 00:06:27.730 the administration is trying to cast this general 00:06:27.730 --> 00:06:30.730 doubt over the entire release. They're trying 00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:33.149 to imply that any of these records, no matter 00:06:33.149 --> 00:06:35.889 the source, could be phony. Which just strengthens 00:06:35.889 --> 00:06:37.689 the belief that they're trying to protect someone. 00:06:37.930 --> 00:06:40.230 It really does. And despite their efforts to 00:06:40.230 --> 00:06:42.370 muddy the waters, there are credible, previously 00:06:42.370 --> 00:06:44.769 reported claims that are now resurfacing. Like 00:06:44.769 --> 00:06:47.769 the FBI report from 2020. Yes, the report from 00:06:47.769 --> 00:06:50.930 October 2020. It involved a limo driver who overheard 00:06:50.930 --> 00:06:54.089 a passenger in 1999 claiming both Trump and Epstein 00:06:54.089 --> 00:06:56.769 had raped her. The woman involved later died, 00:06:56.990 --> 00:06:59.389 ruled a suicide. And Mark Epstein's claims. And 00:06:59.389 --> 00:07:02.129 of course, Mark Epstein continues to claim his 00:07:02.129 --> 00:07:05.250 brother was killed to silence him. The whole 00:07:05.250 --> 00:07:07.829 release process from the bad redactions to the 00:07:07.829 --> 00:07:10.829 administrative spin just leaves that one central 00:07:10.829 --> 00:07:13.589 question hanging in the air. Who are they protecting? 00:07:13.930 --> 00:07:16.550 That lack of accountability leads us right to 00:07:16.550 --> 00:07:20.490 the Supreme Court. We saw a rare 6 -3 loss on 00:07:20.490 --> 00:07:23.009 the shadow docket for the former president. This 00:07:23.009 --> 00:07:25.790 was about National Guard deployment in Illinois. 00:07:26.350 --> 00:07:28.110 Right. And the denial of his emergency application 00:07:28.110 --> 00:07:31.189 was notable just because the court... basically 00:07:31.189 --> 00:07:33.790 reverted to its normal process. It wasn't giving 00:07:33.790 --> 00:07:36.050 any special favor just because a former president 00:07:36.050 --> 00:07:38.610 asked. But the real legal meat of it centered 00:07:38.610 --> 00:07:41.750 on that phrase, regular forces. Exactly. The 00:07:41.750 --> 00:07:44.110 law says the president can only federalize the 00:07:44.110 --> 00:07:46.350 guard if he is unable with the regular forces 00:07:46.350 --> 00:07:48.730 to execute the laws. And the court used this 00:07:48.730 --> 00:07:51.089 as an opportunity to define regular forces very 00:07:51.089 --> 00:07:53.129 narrowly. As the regular military. As a regular 00:07:53.129 --> 00:07:56.449 military. The actual standing army, Navy, Air 00:07:56.449 --> 00:07:59.300 Force. not civilian police, not even National 00:07:59.300 --> 00:08:01.319 Guard members acting as civilian law enforcement. 00:08:02.100 --> 00:08:05.079 So if a president wants to use federalized guard 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:09.800 troops on US soil, he runs into a very old, very 00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:13.060 big legal hurdle. He does. Because the military 00:08:13.060 --> 00:08:15.500 is largely restricted from executing laws on 00:08:15.500 --> 00:08:18.019 American soil by the Posse Comitatus Act. Can 00:08:18.019 --> 00:08:19.620 you just quickly define that for our listeners? 00:08:19.779 --> 00:08:22.459 Sure. The Posse Comitatus Act is a long -standing 00:08:22.459 --> 00:08:25.660 law that restricts using the US military the 00:08:25.660 --> 00:08:28.420 actual regular forces for domestic law enforcement. 00:08:28.899 --> 00:08:31.399 OK. So because the court defined the law here 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:34.139 as requiring the military, the president must 00:08:34.139 --> 00:08:36.779 first identify the source of authority that gives 00:08:36.779 --> 00:08:39.139 him a statutory exception to Posse Comitatus. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:41.519 And Trump hadn't done that. He had not. And this 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:43.419 really suggests the court is keen on setting 00:08:43.419 --> 00:08:46.279 a very high legal bar against using the military 00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:49.139 domestically, even if a governor like in Louisiana 00:08:49.139 --> 00:08:51.519 might agree to it. That's a powerful precedent 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:54.330 on executive overreach. OK, let's shift gears 00:08:54.330 --> 00:08:57.309 now pretty dramatically from legal hurdles to 00:08:57.309 --> 00:08:59.830 fantastical spending. We need to talk about the 00:08:59.830 --> 00:09:03.110 proposed Trump -class battleship. Oh boy, yes. 00:09:03.470 --> 00:09:05.429 The concept drawing alone made headlines, didn't 00:09:05.429 --> 00:09:07.590 it? With that stylized image referencing the 00:09:07.590 --> 00:09:09.789 assassination attempt on the ship. Beyond the 00:09:09.789 --> 00:09:12.289 optics, though, the financial and logistical 00:09:12.289 --> 00:09:14.970 problems here are just staggering. The cost is 00:09:14.970 --> 00:09:17.529 estimated at 15 to 20 billion dollars, maybe 00:09:17.529 --> 00:09:19.970 more. And given all the other promises already 00:09:19.970 --> 00:09:22.970 made, the funding sources seem... Completely 00:09:22.970 --> 00:09:25.730 theoretical. And logistically it seems like a 00:09:25.730 --> 00:09:29.009 non -starter. Totally. Only one U .S. shipyard, 00:09:29.250 --> 00:09:31.509 Newport News in Virginia, can even build a ship 00:09:31.509 --> 00:09:34.049 this size. And it's already years behind schedule 00:09:34.049 --> 00:09:36.620 on aircraft carriers. And staffing it would be 00:09:36.620 --> 00:09:39.379 an issue, too. A huge issue. The ship would need 00:09:39.379 --> 00:09:42.539 about 500 sailors. That's 200 more than the suits 00:09:42.539 --> 00:09:44.899 it would replace. And this is at a time when 00:09:44.899 --> 00:09:47.259 military recruitment is already a major challenge. 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:49.120 And then there's the technical complexity, which 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:51.360 is just through the roof, especially with the 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:53.600 weapons. Right. The plan is to put nuclear -tipped 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:56.019 missiles on board, which is highly problematic. 00:09:56.299 --> 00:09:58.600 The U .S. stopped putting nukes on Navy ships 00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:02.120 back in 1991 under George H .W. Bush. Why was 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:04.720 that? Largely due to procedural complexity and 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:07.460 international treaty limitations. Trying to introduce 00:10:07.460 --> 00:10:09.820 a brand new ship design and a new weapon system 00:10:09.820 --> 00:10:12.539 at the same time is historically a recipe for 00:10:12.539 --> 00:10:15.220 disaster for the Navy. Like the Zumwalt class 00:10:15.220 --> 00:10:17.639 destroyer. Exactly like the Zumwalt. A total 00:10:17.639 --> 00:10:20.559 failure and this new ship is even more ambitious. 00:10:20.860 --> 00:10:23.500 So what's the professional naval critique here? 00:10:23.580 --> 00:10:25.919 Is this even really a battleship? Not according 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:28.460 to the experts in our sources. No. At around 00:10:28.460 --> 00:10:32.759 35 ,000 tons, it's more like a scaled up LCS, 00:10:33.100 --> 00:10:35.419 a literal combat ship, not a true battleship. 00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:38.460 And vulnerable. Exquisitely vulnerable. Given 00:10:38.460 --> 00:10:41.240 its size and shallow draft, experts suggest it 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:44.059 would just get eaten alive by modern threats 00:10:44.059 --> 00:10:46.559 like drone saturation. And the timeline they 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:50.090 gave was 2 .5 years. Which is described as utterly 00:10:50.090 --> 00:10:53.269 unrealistic. Experts say the actual timeline 00:10:53.269 --> 00:10:55.190 for something like this is more like 10 to 20 00:10:55.190 --> 00:10:57.509 years. So it's a proposal designed for political 00:10:57.509 --> 00:11:00.070 spectacle, not military reality. That's what 00:11:00.070 --> 00:11:01.929 it looks like. Which takes us to our culture 00:11:01.929 --> 00:11:04.750 segment. The Kennedy Center honors controversy. 00:11:05.509 --> 00:11:07.769 There was subtle change here, but one that signaled 00:11:07.769 --> 00:11:10.789 a big political shift. The group photo. Yes. 00:11:11.110 --> 00:11:13.250 The longstanding tradition was for honorees to 00:11:13.250 --> 00:11:15.990 wear rainbow ribbons, a symbol of diversity, 00:11:16.450 --> 00:11:18.899 of unity. And this year, replaced by blue ribbons. 00:11:19.240 --> 00:11:20.580 And blue, of course, is the color associated 00:11:20.580 --> 00:11:23.840 with the Democratic Party, which is a very curious 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:26.779 choice for the administration hosting the event. 00:11:27.080 --> 00:11:29.519 The ceremony itself honored Sylvester Stallone, 00:11:29.740 --> 00:11:32.139 Michael Crawford, Kiss, George Strait, Gloria 00:11:32.139 --> 00:11:35.259 Gaynor. But the biggest culture bomb was the 00:11:35.259 --> 00:11:38.200 proposal to rename the institution itself. That's 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:40.889 right. And the Economist YouGov poll found that 00:11:40.889 --> 00:11:43.210 renaming the Kennedy Center to the Trump Kennedy 00:11:43.210 --> 00:11:46.509 Center is probably the single most unpopular 00:11:46.509 --> 00:11:48.509 action of his second term. What were the numbers 00:11:48.509 --> 00:11:51.649 on that? Only 18 % approval against a massive 00:11:51.649 --> 00:11:54.370 66 % disapproval. It's just incredibly unpopular. 00:11:54.690 --> 00:11:58.049 Why do you think that specific move is so uniquely 00:11:58.049 --> 00:12:00.639 unpopular? I think it just crosses a line for 00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:03.879 a lot of voters. Stepping on JFK's legacy is 00:12:03.879 --> 00:12:06.779 just seen as being in poor taste. But more importantly, 00:12:07.139 --> 00:12:09.259 it's a non -consequential cultural issue. It 00:12:09.259 --> 00:12:11.179 doesn't affect taxes or foreign policy. Right. 00:12:11.220 --> 00:12:13.679 So it allows even the most ardent MAGGA voters 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:16.139 to express their disapproval without feeling 00:12:16.139 --> 00:12:18.639 like they're undermining a core policy goals, 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:20.820 kind of a safe place for them to vent. Okay, 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:23.840 finally, we have two quick but important follow 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:27.820 -ups. First, that spiked 60 Minutes story. Right, 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:30.419 this is the piece that Barry Weiss stomped just 00:12:30.419 --> 00:12:33.379 hours before it was supposed to air. The story 00:12:33.379 --> 00:12:35.639 was investigating the Center for Economic Crisis 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:39.139 and Opportunity Task Force, or CECOD. And the 00:12:39.139 --> 00:12:41.759 key takeaway here was the administration's attempted 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:45.100 interference. Yes. The administration did provide 00:12:45.100 --> 00:12:47.480 a comment to 60 minutes, but the show excluded 00:12:47.480 --> 00:12:49.500 it because it was completely off topic. What 00:12:49.500 --> 00:12:51.740 did it say? The comment demanded the show pivot 00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:55.000 its focus to angel parents, a term the White 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:57.700 House uses for victims of crimes by undocumented 00:12:57.700 --> 00:13:00.500 immigrants instead of the actual story about 00:13:00.500 --> 00:13:03.279 Seegicott. So an attempt to hijack the segment 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:05.039 for a political ad. That's how the journalists 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:07.879 saw it. Yes. Unrelated to the Coppica hand. And 00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:10.320 lastly, let's revisit that geopolitical nugget 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:13.179 about the DJT -TE fusion merger. Our sources 00:13:13.179 --> 00:13:16.059 suggest this is a merger between two badly overhyped 00:13:16.059 --> 00:13:18.139 entities. Yeah, fusion power is still a very 00:13:18.139 --> 00:13:20.179 long way off. But the key insight here is the 00:13:20.179 --> 00:13:23.480 money trail. TAE has existed since 1998 without 00:13:23.480 --> 00:13:25.240 generating any revenue. So who's been keeping 00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:27.559 it afloat? A major investor has been a company 00:13:27.559 --> 00:13:30.379 called Rusnano. And Rusnano is. It is a Russian 00:13:30.379 --> 00:13:32.820 state -funded investment company. So the sources 00:13:32.820 --> 00:13:37.620 suggest this entire merger has a very clear geopolitical 00:13:37.620 --> 00:13:40.840 undercurrent linking a highly speculative American 00:13:40.840 --> 00:13:43.580 venture directly to state -backed Russian funding. 00:13:43.779 --> 00:13:46.340 We have covered a massive amount of ground today. 00:13:46.590 --> 00:13:49.090 From just a handful of voters in South Carolina 00:13:49.090 --> 00:13:53.389 signaling a potential GOP crisis to legal dumps 00:13:53.389 --> 00:13:55.850 that raise more questions than they answer. To 00:13:55.850 --> 00:13:58.269 policy proposals that just completely strain 00:13:58.269 --> 00:14:00.570 credulity. And the common thread here really 00:14:00.570 --> 00:14:03.470 is high stakes political maneuvering, all disguised 00:14:03.470 --> 00:14:05.789 by that holiday information overload. And, you 00:14:05.789 --> 00:14:07.549 know, going back to the Epstein files for a second, 00:14:07.590 --> 00:14:09.730 that question of who are they protecting just 00:14:09.730 --> 00:14:13.350 remains so potent. The DOJ's very visible yet 00:14:13.350 --> 00:14:16.919 poorly executed release strategy. It really suggests 00:14:16.919 --> 00:14:19.220 a clear interest in controlling the narrative, 00:14:19.460 --> 00:14:21.879 if not the information itself. And we noted that 00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:23.799 the Supreme Court ruling on the National Guard 00:14:23.799 --> 00:14:27.240 added a very specific high legal hurdle that 00:14:27.240 --> 00:14:30.340 the president failed to clear. Now considering 00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:32.740 the lawfulness of using the military on American 00:14:32.740 --> 00:14:35.100 soil is rarely discussed when federalizing the 00:14:35.100 --> 00:14:37.980 Guard. What are the full implications of this 00:14:37.980 --> 00:14:40.700 narrow definition of regular forces for executive 00:14:40.700 --> 00:14:43.850 power moving forward? Does this ruling significantly 00:14:43.850 --> 00:14:45.889 limit a future president's ability to deploy 00:14:45.889 --> 00:14:48.409 troops domestically in a crisis? That's something 00:14:48.409 --> 00:14:50.450 for you to continue exploring as you process 00:14:50.450 --> 00:14:52.850 this deep dive. Until next time. Thanks for diving 00:14:52.850 --> 00:14:53.470 deep with us.